National Blog

"Victory" in Libya: Deja Vu All Over Again

Remember NATO's great "victory" in Libya? It took the world's greatest military alliance in history about five months to overthrow a decrepit and nutty dictator. Along the way tens of thousands of Libyans died.

Since then the country has been a mess--weapons gone missing, Islamists on the rise, former al-Qaeda activists gaining power, armed militias in charge. Jeffersonian democracy the place has yet to become.

Tribal leaders and militia commanders in oil-rich eastern Libya have declared their intention to seek semi-autonomy, raising fears that the country might disintegrate following the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.

Thousands of representatives of major tribal leaders, militia commanders and politicians made the declaration on Tuesday in a ceremony held in Benghazi.

They promised to end decades of marginalisation under Gaddafi and named a council to run the affairs of the newly created region, Cyrenaica, extending from the central coastal city of Sirte to the Egyptian border in the east.

Al Jazeera’s Nicole Johnston, reporting from the capital, Tripoli, said the announcement in Benghazi was only the beginning of a process.

It's up to the Libyans on whether they want to hang together. But it's more evidence that American politicians have no idea what they are doing when they intervene overseas. Vote-seeking pols climb on their white horses and yell charge, and then let others clean up the mess. Iraq was merely the worst example.

No worries, tho. Sen. John McCain wants to start bombing Syria. I'm sure that would work out well!